Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Ask Coriel: Healing Trinkets

Jammy asks:

So my guild is just starting out in SSC/TK and I was wondering what the best possible trinkets for a healadin would be. As of right now, I currently use the Lower City prayerbook, and the Ribbon of Sacrifice from Kara, occasionally swapping out a couple of JC trinkets, like the Talasite Owl or the Living Ruby Serpent. Any other suggestions I might shoot for?

Honestly, I wouldn't worry too much about trinkets. You have a solid pair. If you can get one of the ones on the list above easily, go for it, but don't sweat it. Also, I find that making a macro to automatically use your trinkets (especially LCP) when you cast a spell will help ensure you get maximum use out of them.

17 comments:

As the previous poster said, Scarab of the Infinite Cycle is a really great addition.

I would also recommend the heroic badge trinket Essence of the Martyr.

Void Reaver drops the Fel Reaver Piston. This or the one from Hexlord in ZA can be nice for your manareg and have either a heal over time or +heal effect.

I would not recommend the trinket from Aran as I found it to be unsatisfying. And if you are trying to get the spellcrit trinket from Karathress, have fun with your damage casters who will kill for it. I guess I'd rather get the PVP trinket. ;)

Like most of the posters above mentioned, the Scarab of the Infinite Cycles is an awesome trinket. I was excited when it finally dropped in Black Morass.

I currently use the Scarab of Infinite Cycles and Ribbon of Sacrifice. Really good mix when Phase 2 gets tough on Prince (I've only gotten as far as Karazhan). I've noticed the spell haste increase form the Scarab on many occasions, and it procs fairly often.

I've found that a fun thing to do is use the trinket from heroic MgT in combination with holy shock in a macro. An instant 4k non crit heal is a lot. I used a macro that is somewhere along the lines of;

#show tooltip Holy Shock/cast Vials of the Naaru/cast Holy Shock

I threw in there a few modifiers so I would not waste it when holy shocking enemies, but I forget the exact syntax and am not at my computer atm.

This macro is great for tight situations in a boss battle or such, this combo has saved our tanks several times. It's even more powerful because of the buff to holy shock.

I'm an evil priest so my opinions may be skewed but I was looking at the MgT trinket and I decided for me, it was really only strong for fights where there is a silence mechanic or Reliquary of Souls when the mana drain takes you to 0 mana. I know my pally friend was excited about the idea of another heal he could cast on movement fights, but was disappointed with it after playing with it in raids.

I think trinkets are the easiest gear you can change to give yourself a situational advantages for certain fights. You can easily swap in high +healing or the haste trinket for spike damage or short fights and switch regen trinkets for longer fights. Finally since most of the trinkets mentioned come from 5 mans, 10 mans or badge rewards there isn't often much competition for the trinkets so they should be fairly accessible to you.

Three trinkets not mentioned:Fel Reaver's Piston - This is only 16 mp5, but the proc is ideal for a class with no heal-over-time spells. With a 15% proc and ~15s second cooldown, this ends up being around +100 healing.

Some trinkets mentioned:Figurine - Seaspray Albatross - This devolves down to 43 mp5, which isn't bad but isn't particularly good either.

Vial of the Sunwell - The use condition adds 16.6 hps, which translates to +58 healing for direct heals. Unless a 2k instaheal is absolute necessary, this trinket is terrible.

Pendant of the Violet Eye - This comes out to be around 23 mp5. The 660 mana (after BoK) it provides can translate to 11 mp5 for a 5-minute fight. It also provides +15 healing from talents. It also provides a minor amount of critical. Not a top notch trinket, but not horrible.

I missed Scarab of the Infinite Cycle and Battlemaster's Alacrity. Fel Reaver Piston is T5 content. I also don't really want to recommend levelling a new profession, even if the Alchemy trinket is very good.

As for the Badge trinket, it's good, but honestly, I don't think it's that much of an upgrade over the current trinkets. I would rather save the Badges for the new armor. Of course, if you had Badges to spare, you could get it.

I'm not at the level you guys are, still in Kara, just getting past Curator. When I started I used two Lower City Prayerbooks, because I needed the +healing that badly. Through some good gear upgrades I've ditched one book in favor of X'ri's Gift, which has given me a nice boost to my crit rating.

A good read, having been a Paladin healer for 2 years, trinkets have always been an item that I have changed in & out regularly.Considering there are 2 slots the combinations vary from all +healing, +Mp5, +Intellect/Stamina too spell haste, instant heal & increase in spell crit.

I am not an expert on the majority of trinkets mentioned, I have used all but the crafted tinkets but I thought I would respond to the Anonymous post regarding the 'Vial of the Sunwell'

"Vial of the Sunwell - The use condition adds 16.6 hps, which translates to +58 healing for direct heals. Unless a 2k instaheal is absolute necessary, this trinket is terrible."

I will leave out the theory crafting, & deal with the simple benefits from this trinket as in my opinion this is the best healing trinket before T6 content.

The benefits as I see it are;

- This trinket can be charged up prior to any boss fight or arena match ahead of time; the Holy Energy buff (which represents the collected energy, and stacks to 20) has no duration. This means that you can charge it up with 20 rank 1 heals before a fight starts.

- The Vial of the Sunwell is also not classed as a spell & consequently does not suffer from silence, Counter spell, curse of tongues mechanics so can be used for fights such as Gruul and Nalorakk & obviously ideal for Arena.

- The Vial can also crit, I have not done significant testing but have seen it crit often, and the amount is for 3000 healing.

Finally, & most significantly the Vial also has a 15Mp5 stat. In my current build I have just surppased +25% Holy crit & having the 15+Mp5 is vital for me to maintain a Mp5 whilst casting of over 130.

This post is from a Paladin healing build, aiming for 30% crit,140 + Mp5 in combat & 1900+ healing, so it may not agree with other healers.